Man with long rap sheet gets more prison time

The father of a young boy killed in 2007 when two Allentown police cruisers collided and plowed over a sidewalk has been sentenced to state prison again, this time for shooting a man at a pizza shop.

Andre Raymelle Watley, 26, of Allentown was sentenced to four to 10 years in state prison Thursday by Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos.

Watley is already serving prison time for a number of charges. Court records show Watley has at least 10 criminal convictions in six different Northampton County cases since 2002.

In July, he pleaded guilty in Lehigh County Court to aggravated assault and possessing a firearm without a license, admitting he shot a man during a fight in a city pizza shop last year.

According to Allentown police:

Just before 2 a.m. on May 23, 2009, Watley and another man were arguing in the pool room at Tony's Pizza at 1139 Union Blvd. The man hit Watley with a pool cue and Watley pulled a gun and fired, hitting Kenyon T. Burton, then 33, in the leg.

Watley fled. While Burton was being questioned, police found marijuana on him and charged him with possession. Burton pleaded guilty to the charge.

Five days after the shooting, police were staking out a location near S. Madison Street for the suspect. When Watley showed up and saw police, he led officers on a 4-mile chase that ended with a crash on Fairfax Street in Salisbury Township.

Watley got out of the car and ran, but was arrested less than an hour later.

Charges relating to the chase and crash were dropped in return for his plea to aggravated assault and the firearm charge.

Watley's prior convictions include: illegal firearm possession, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, criminal conspiracy, false identification to law enforcement, driving with a suspended license, disorderly conduct and obstruction of administration of law of government.

Watley also pleaded no contest in 2006 to statutory sexual assault and served a 15-to-30-month sentence. He and two other men were charged with giving a 14- and a 15-year-old girl alcohol and forcing them to have sex, according to Morning Call archives.

Authorities have confirmed Watley is the biological father of Daviay Legrand, a 4-year-old boy who was killed in May 2007 by an Allentown police car that collided with another police cruiser at N. Seventh and Chew streets.